Members

I am a multidisciplinary scientist, training initially as a plant biochemist before studying molecular chaperones in mitochondrial targeting as a PhD student (awarded March 2004), and eventually training in biophysical and structural biology in immune receptors as a postdoctoral researcher. I started my independent research career at Monash University with an NHMRC CDA fellowship (2008) followed by a Pfizer Australia Research fellowship (2010) in the area of glycan specificity in bacterial pathogenesis and physiology. I changed research fields when I was recruited to La Trobe University in 2014 as a senior lecturer to establish a laboratory focused on livestock-pathogen interactions in the School of Animal, Plant and Soil Science located in the AgriBio centre. My research is concentrated on aiding animal health with a focus on field-based diagnostics, molecular understanding of the role glycans and glycan-binding proteins play in disease pathogenesis and vaccine development.

Find out more about Profesor Beddoe's research.

Dr Wenyi Li is an NHMRC Investigator (Emerging Leadership Level 1) and Lecturer in Chemistry at the Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, La Trobe University, Melbourne. His research projects mainly focus on the development of antimicrobials to combat nosocomial infections by using his chemical biology expertise and skillset. By fostering an active collaborative research network, Dr Li has obtained several outstanding successful grants, including 1 CIA NHMRC Investigator EL1 grant and 1 CI NHMRC Ideas Grant, as well as CIA Ramaciotti Health Investment Grant.

Dr Li obtained his Bachelor and Master degree (supervised by Prof Rui Wang) from Lanzhou University, China, and received his doctoral degree from The University of Melbourne under the supervision of Professors John D. Wade and Frances Separovic. After two postdoctoral training with Prof Christian Hackenberger at Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie, Berlin, supported as a Leibniz-DAAD postdoctoral fellow, and with Professors Neil O'Brien-Simpson and Greg Qiao at the University of Melbourne, he relocated to La Trobe University to start his research group by focusing chemical biology and peptide chemistry for novel drug discovery.

Find out more about Dr Li's research.

Medicinal chemistry involves the design, synthesis and development of the molecules we need in order to understand, prevent and treat disease.

We use synthetic organic chemistry to make novel compounds and then test them in biological assays, which are either undertaken in our lab or by collaborators, in order to study the structure-activity relationships of how the compounds interact with the target.

Developing novel antibacterial agents to inhibit targets that have not previously been studied in bacteria is currently an important focus of our group.

Other projects are working towards new treatments for malaria, cardiomyopathy and motor neurone disease.

We are particularly interested in small molecule inhibitors of protein kinases and cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases, such as PI3-kinase, JAK, PDK1, PKA, PDE2 and PDE3.

We have also been involved in the development and application of peptide nucleic acid (PNA) technology in the early detection and treatment of disease.

Find out more about Dr Abbott's research.

Professor Arumugam obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Medical Science with Honors from the University of Sydney in 1998 and a Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacology from the University of Queensland in 2003. He completed post-doctoral training at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, USA, under Professor Neil Granger, and at the National Institute of Health, Baltimore, USA, under Professor Mark Mattson. Establishing his independent laboratory at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in 2007, he later transitioned to The University of Queensland (UQ) as a Senior Lecturer, focusing on CNS neurodegeneration and ischemic stroke. In 2011, he was honored with the UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award and an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship. He was appointed Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore in 2013 and subsequently joined La Trobe University in March 2020.

Professor Arumugam’s research is primarily dedicated to unraveling neuronal cell death mechanisms in stroke and vascular dementia, with an emphasis on identifying novel therapeutic targets. Furthermore, his investigations extend to exploring the impact of intermittent metabolic switching on brain aging and related diseases. His contributions have appeared in journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Neuroscience, Circulation, PNAS, Molecular Psychiatry, Theranostics, Cell Metabolism, and Nature Communications. With over 195 articles and three book chapters, his work has garnered over 22,000 citations (Google Scholar) and he maintains an h-index of 78.

Find out more about Professor Arumugam's research.

Grant Drummond is a Professor of Physiology and Co-director of the Centre for Cardiovascular Biology and Disease Research (CCBDR) at La Trobe University. He also serves as Associate Dean Partnerships for the School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment. Grant's research is in the area of cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease with a specific focus on understanding the roles of oxidative stress, the immune system and the gut microbiome in promoting the vascular, cardiac and renal inflammation that contributes to these conditions. Grant's work has provided novel insights into the roles of NADPH oxidase-derived reactive oxygen species as signalling molecules under physiological conditions, and mediators of oxidative damage in vascular disease. His studies have also shed new light on the involvement of both innate (e.g. NLRP3 inflammasome, interleukin-18), and adaptive (B cells, autoantibodies) immune signalling pathways in the development of hypertension and kidney damage. More recently, Grant's team have been exploring the relationship between gut health and cardiovascular disease, with a particular focus on the gut virome. His work is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and the Heart Foundation of Australia.

Find out more about Professor Drummond's research.

Dr Emma Grant leads a research team within the laboratory of Prof Stephanie Gras in the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science (LIMS), La Trobe University. Her research focuses on identifying and characterising immune cell responses towards different pathogens, with a particular emphasis on influenza virus, which kills more than half a million people worldwide annually. By understanding which immune cells are “superior” in providing protection against viruses and identifying which parts of the virus they “see”, we hope to inform the design of next generation theraputics and vaccines.

Throughout her career, Dr Grant’s research has assessed immune responses in “high-risk” populations such as the elderly, and Indigenous Australians. She has also identified numerous virus-derived targets which induce strong immune responses, representing targets for future therapeutics and vaccines. Her research success, lead to back-to-back Fellowships since the completion of her PhD in 2015 (NHMRC CJ Martin 2016-2020, ARC DECRA 2021-2024), and the award of several highly competitive travel and career development awards, most recently the Lorne Infection and Immunity Mid-Career Development Award.

Find out more about Dr Grant's research.

The Gras Lab is focused on understanding how to combat viral infections.

Viruses are part of day-to-day encounters that our immune system needs to deal with. How the immune system “sees”, recognises and eliminates viral infection is not fully understood.

Indeed, viruses are able to mutate in order to escape the immune system surveillance. If we were to develop better vaccine and drugs, it is essential to understand the mechanism of viral recognition and viral escape prior to this.

Our lab combines both the cellular and structural approaches to understand the immune system action when face with a viral infection.

Find out more about Professor Gras' research.

I am a NHMRC L2 Investigator, an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and a former Broomhead Centenary Fellow.

I completed my PhD and first postdoctoral studies at the University of Würzburg, Germany, where I trained in cell death research and mouse genetics. During this time, I worked with the German Pharma Company Taconic Artemis developing methods to establish novel pre-clinical models of disease.

In 2008, I moved to Australia and joined the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) where I served as a Laboratory Head in the Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division and Head of the Melbourne Genome Editing Centre (MAGEC). My research team specialised in applying CRISPR gene editing techniques to identify critical gene targets required for the development and sustained growth of cancer cells. Recent findings identified DNA repair as fundamental for TP53-mediated tumour suppression (Janic et al., Nature Medicine 2018).

My current research is focused on using advanced genome wide CRISPR screening, including gene activation and base editing in vitro and in vivo (Deng et al., Nature Communications, 2022). At ONJCRI we use these research techniques to amplify the research conducted within all our labs to discover drug resistance factors and targets that enhance immune therapies.

Since joining ONJCRI in 2023, my primary role as CEO of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute (ONJCRI) is to steer our Institute towards a new phase of growth and impact by achieving our strategic priorities. This includes fostering collaborations both within ONJCRI and with external entities while capitalising on existing strengths, assets, and successes of ONJCRI.

Find out more about Professor Herald's research.

Prof Hulett completed his doctoral studies in 1994 at The University of Melbourne in on immune cell receptors in inflammation and allergy. He was awarded an NHMRC Peter Doherty Postdoctoral Fellowship (1995-1998) to continue his work on immune receptors at the Austin Research Institute. Prof Hulett moved to the John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) at The Australian National University in 1999 where he cloned the heparan sulphate-degrading enzyme heparanase and described its important role in inflammatory disease and cancer. Following the awarding of a Viertel Senior Medical Research Fellowship in 2002, Prof Hulett established an independent laboratory at the JCSMR to study molecular aspects of immune and tumour cell migration. In 2008 Prof Hulett moved his research group to the Department of Biochemistry at La Trobe University.

Find out more about Professor Hulett's research.

Professor Patrick Humbert is the Director of the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Sciences (LIMS).  Patrick is a recognized international leader in cancer research with PhD training in immunology at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia, and postdoctoral training in genetics and cancer research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, USA. Patrick led a lab for over 15 years at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, before becoming La Trobe University’s inaugural Professor of Cancer Biology in 2016. In 2018, Patrick established and became Director of the Research Centre for Molecular Cancer Prevention at La Trobe University. Patrick has received multiple awards including a Merck Fellowship, Special Fellowship of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America, and consecutive Career Development Fellowships and Senior Research Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

Patrick’s current research include investigating the molecular mechanisms of tissue architecture in cancer and regeneration, developing the therapeutic targeting of tissue disorganisation for cancer prevention, identifying the evolutionary origins of cancer in the first multicellular animals, and characterising the effects of space and microgravity environments on regeneration and cancer progression.

Find out more about Professor Humbert's research.

Helen Irving is a Professor in Biomedical Sciences and is a member of the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Sciences (LIMS). Helen's current research centres on understanding inflammatory signals at the molecular level to develop new and improved approaches to managing inflammatory conditions.

Helen obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from The University of Melbourne and conducted post-doctoral work at Vanderbilt University (USA) and The University of Kentucky (USA) before returning to Australia to take up an ARC Post-Doctoral Fellowship at La Trobe University. For most of her career, she has been a teaching/research academic based at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Monash University. Helen moved to the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Sciences (LIMS) at La Trobe University in 2017.

Find out more about Professor Irving's research.

My research is centered on understanding the interplay of pathogens with their hosts. This includes pathogens affecting humans and plants as well as those affecting animals. We examine the way how key effector molecules from pathogen and host engage with each other, and how this molecular dance shapes disease trajectory and outcomes. We use imaging methods to understand how these events occur at the atomic level, including cryo electron microscopy and x-ray crystallography. Ultimately we aim to deliver insights into molecular mechanisms that inform strategies for treatment and prevention of pathogen induced disease.

1. We are interested in how small proteins called defensins act as first line of defence against microbial threats such as fungal infections. We have shown that defensins recognize specific phospholipid markers in the membranes of pathogens, and often assemble oligomeric assemblies that destroy pathogen membranes.

2. Cell polarity enables cells to determine direction and thus is pivotal for assembling complex 3D tissue architecture. Scribble is a master regulator of this process, and we are interested in understanding how Scribble is regulated, and how Scribble interacts with other effectors to control tissue architecture. Many viruses hijack Scribble signalling, and this impacts viral infection and proliferation, and we are interested in exploring this for the development of novel antiviral therapeutics.

3. Viruses such as Epstein-Barr virus and Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus use proteins belonging to the family of Bcl-2 to subvert host cell suicide signalling programs. Dysfunction of these pathways in virus infected cells can give rise to cancer, and we study how virus encoded Bcl-2 proteins contribute to tumourigenesis. Ultimately we aim to develop new therapeutics to treat Epstein-Barr virus associated tumours such as Burkitt lymphoma or nasopharyngeal carcinoma, or Kaposi sarcoma which is caused by Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus.

Find out about Professor Kvansakul's research.

I am a hands-on lab biologist turned data-crunching genome scientist. My lab studies how plants perceive the world around them and interact with their environments by regulation of their genomes. We apply this work with commercial partners who grow a range of agricultural crops including cannabis, opium poppies, barley, oats and peas.

Find out more about Professor Lewsey's research.

The research focus in the Petrovski Lab is microbial genetics specifically mobile genetic elements which include transposons, plasmids and bacteriophages. Current active projects include studying the epidemiology of the Tn5053/Tn402 family and investigating their mechanism of transposition at the molecular level. In addition the laboratory is interested in the evolution and dissemination of antibiotic resistance plasmids and the mechanisms of their conjugation functions as well as proteins that can interfere with their conjugal ability. Another main area of the laboratories research interest focuses on the isolation and genetic characterisation of bacteriophages that specifically infect both clinically important bacteria and environmental bacteria and ways in which they can be used or manipulated in phage therapy or biocontrol. Current active projects include developing bacteriophage cocktails to apply as a reliable method to control operational problems that commonly occur in wastewater treatment plants, as well as the development of novel pharmaceutical products containing bacteriophages to combat infections (in collaboration with the school of pharmacy and Melbourne health). Methods are currently being developed to genetically manipulate bacteriophages in attempts to develop bacteriophage biosensors.

Steve obtained his PhD in 2008 studying the genetic diversity of transposable elements that interact with broad host range plasmids. He then did a three year postdoctoral research position at La Trobe in Bendigo where he worked on isolating bacteriophages to develop a biocontrol method for wastewater foaming. Steve then worked at the department of primary industries where he developed skills in illumina next generation sequencing technology. He then worked as a hospital medical scientist before joining La Trobe University and started up his own research laboratory.

Find out more about Associate Professor Petrovski's research.

Work generated from Prof Poon’s group has been recognised nationally and internationally, with his work being featured in ‘News & Views’ and ‘Research Highlight’ in journals including Nature, Nature Chemical Biology, Journal of General Physiology, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, Circulation Research, and featured in >50 mainstream media including The Age, The Australian, South China Morning Post and The Guardian.

To support Prof Poon’s laboratory at the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science (LIMS) in elucidating the mechanism and function of dying cell disassembly, he was awarded a NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship, a NHMRC RD Wright Career Development Fellowship, a LIMS Hoogenraad Fellowship, as well as NHMRC EL2 and L1 Investigator Grants. Prof Poon has also received >$4.4 million research funding as the leading Chief Investigator from NHMRC (Project Grant, Investigator Grant, Fellowships), ARC (Discovery Projects), La Trobe University, as well as philanthropic funders. Prof Poon’s contribution to the scientific and wider community has also been recognised by a Peter Doherty Leading Light Award from the Australian Society for Medical Research, a La Trobe University Research Excellence Award, a Melbourne Protein Group Award Lecture, and a Victorian Young Tall Poppy Science Award from the Australian Institute of Policy & Science.

Find out more about Dr Poon's research.

Dr. Reynolds is a Nicholas Hoogenraad Fellow at the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science (LIMS). He obtained his PhD in 2009 from the Chemistry & Biology departments of the University of Sheffield. Since then he has held positions at the University of Zurich, CSIRO and Swinburne University of Technology. In October 2019 he established the Self-Assembled Nanomaterials group within LIMS. Dr Reynolds has published 40 papers in world-renowned interdisciplinary journals and has over 1520 citations.

Dr. Reynolds’ research is highly interdisciplinary and focuses on the design, discovery, characterisation and applications of self-assembled nanomaterials. These nanomaterials have applications in diverse fields including tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, sensing and understanding disease.

Find out more about Dr Reynolds' research.

Colleen is a teaching and research academic.  She is an Associate Professor in Physiology and Head, Cardiovascular Physiology Laboratory in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Microbiology. She is also a Division Head in the Centre for Cardiovascular Biology and Disease Research at the University. Colleen obtained her PhD from the Faculty of Medicine, Monash University, examining the influence of natriuretic peptides on cardiac reflexes in normal health, cardiovascular disease models and aging. She has expertise in instrumenting small and large animals for integrated cardiovascular physiological recordings in acute and chronic study settings (eg., blood pressure, heart rate, regional (organ) blood flow). She uses biochemical and molecular analyses to elucidate mechanisms of action.  A significant post-doctoral research interest has been to develop novel strategies and therapies to treat myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury.  Functional components of diet to prevent / reverse chronic disease (especially CVD/ diabetes) are also a significant recent focus of her lab (anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant mechanisms of action; role of the gut microbiome). Colleen’s research is evidenced by multi-disciplinary collaborations to translate findings from basic research through to clinical trials and successful industry partnerships.

Find out about Associate Professor Thomas's research.

Dr Chanh Tran's major research interests include interactions of X-rays with matter, complex atomic fine structures, optical coherence, x-ray imaging and synchrotron science. He received his PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2003 in the area of precision measurement of the imaginary component of the atomic form factor using the X-ray Extended Range Technique.  He won an Australian Synchrotron Research Fellowship in 2003 (~AUD300k) and an Australian Research Fellowship in a sole-CI ARC Discovery Project in 2006 (~AUD630k). He has been a lecturer at La Trobe University with 67 fully refereed publications, including a provisional pattern. He has extensive synchrotron experience and has conducted his research at major facilities around the world including the Australian Synchrotron (AUS), the Photon Factory (Japan), the Advanced Photon Source (US), the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (US), The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (EU), and Diamond Light Source (UK).

Chanh Tran is the elected Vice-President representing Australia and Oceania of the International Radiation Physics Society for 2021-2024. He is also a Member of the Commission on X-ray Absorption Fine Structure of the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) for 2021-2023.

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For her doctorate, Kaye studied molecular chaperone assisted protein folding in thermophilic bacteria under the supervision of Prof. Robert Scopes. In 1999, shortly after obtaining her PhD, she was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship to examine the protein import machinery in mitochondria of yeast and was hosted by Prof. Nikolaus Pfanner (Institute for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Freiburg, Germany). In 2001 Kaye was promoted to group leader within the Pfanner lab where she continued her studies on the molecular mechanisms of mitochondrial protein translocation. In 2004 she was awarded a QEII Fellowship by the Australian Research Council to study protein degradation by AAA+ proteases in bacteria and mitochondria. In 2009 Kaye was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship to extend her research in the area of mitochondrial protein homeostasis focusing on the role of AAA+ proteases in protein quality control and the mitochondrial unfolded protein response. Kaye is currently a Senior Lecturer and is examining mitochondrial protein biogenesis pathways and protein homeostasis networks in relation to human health and disease.

Find out more about Dr Truscott

Dave has a PhD in radioastronomy and microwave spectroscopy and degrees in chemistry, chemical engineering, and physics. He is boundary-crossing, multi-skilled lateral thinker with unusually broad, highly relevant formal academic training in multiple scientific disciplines. He has developed strong scientific capabilities that allow him to find novel solutions to complex problems. He focuses strongly on fundamental science that can be translated into tangible impact. He has published over 250 research papers (e.g. Chemical Reviews, Chemical Society Reviews, Nature Materials, Nature Machine Intelligence, Angewandte Chemie, PNAS, Science Advances, Advanced Materials) and book chapters, almost 60 research and client reports, is an inventor on 25 patents. His current H-index is 62 and i10 index (number of papers with >10 citations) is 190. He is ranked 44 among all researchers at La Trobe in terms of the number of publications since 2015 and number 36 at La Trobe in terms of the total number of citations. Internationally, he is ranked 157th out of 95,000 medicinal chemists, and 999th out of 520,000 chemists worldwide (Mendeley 2023).

Find out more about Professor Winkler's research.